Chinese scientists will push the frontier of basic sciences and create new innovations to help the world achieve its sustainable development goals, China Daily reported on December 4.
Last December, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution endorsing 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.
Since then, over 100 organizations worldwide have held events recognizing and celebrating the role of basic research to achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030.
Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “particle physics is one of the fields in basic sciences that Chinese scientists have contributed in recent years.”
Particle physics has yielded many critical innovations, including the internet, nuclear power plants, and medical device used to diagnose and treat cancers, experts said.
The Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, located in southern China’s Guangdong Province, discovered new properties on the oscillation of neutrinos in 2013. The finding sent a shockwave through the international physics community, said the China Daily report.
China is building an even bigger neutrino experiment called the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. The underground scientific infrastructure features a 13-story tall giant glass ball buried around 700 meters underground. It is set to complete next year, Wang added.
Meanwhile, Zhan Wenlong, noted nuclear physicist and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “nuclear energy can play a significant role in helping China reach its peak carbon dioxide emission goal by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.”
The next generation of nuclear technologies will require new breakthroughs in basic sciences ranging from materials science and particle physics, Zhan said.